1. New World Empire
● Expeditions:
– Conquest
– Exploration
● Organization
– Council of the Indies
– Viceroyalties
– Casa de Contratación of Seville
2. Pre-Columbian America
● There were many different native
cultures in America. They have
called Pre-Columbian because they
existed before Columbus arrived
there
● There were three famous
civilizations:
– The Mayas
– The Incas
– The Aztecs
● However many other people also
lived in America
3. ● Find out about the Mayas, the Incas and the
Aztecs
– Where did they live?
– How was their society organized?
– What were their main economic activities?
– What kind of food did they eat?
– In what ways were the three civilizations
similaror different?
4. Expeditions
● Conquest in Central and South America
– Hernán Cortés conquered the Aztec Empire
– Francisco Pizarro conquered the Inca Empire
● Exploration
– Francisco de Orellana discovered the
Amazon rainforest. He was the first to sail
down the Amazon River
– Expeditions to the Pacific: Miguel Lopez de
Legazpi left from Mexico to conquer the
Philippines
6. Organization of the New World
Empire
● The kings treated America as an extension of
Spain and applied the same laws.
● Charles V created the Council of the Indies
(Consejo de Indias), which advised the king on
matters of goverment
●
The conquered territory was divided into the
– Viceroyalty of New Spain (Virreinato de Nueva
España)
– Viceroyalty of Peru (Virreinato del Peru)
– The viceroys came from the Spanish
Aristocracy and were very powerful
7.
8. Economy
● Large amounts of precious metals, especially
silver, were discovered in America and this
helped the kings to finance their empire
● Trade with America was carried out through
the Casa de Contratación, or trading house
in Seville.
● The Spanish also set up large haciendas in
America for stockbreeding and agriculture
9.
10. Society in the New World
● Spaniards occupied the highest positions in
society in the Indies
● Mestizos were the children of Spanish men
and Native American women, and occupied
the second highest positions in society
● Indians performed manual work, largely in
agriculture
● Negroes were in the worst situation. They
were slaves brought from Africa to do the
hardest work, and they had no rights at all
11.
12. Main vocabulary
● Launched ● Prince Henry the Navigator
● Take over
● Portulan chart
● Cape of Good Hope
● Compass, astrolabe, quadrant ● Genoese
● Caravel
● Trading post ● Catholic Monarchs
● Circumnavigating ● Cipango
● Crew
● Took command ● Ferdinand Magellan
● Headed
● Acquire ● Spice Islands
● Accurate ● Strait of Magellan
● Diseases
● Sail down ● Philippines
● Starting point
● Council of the Indies
● Viceroyalty
● Viceroy
● Haciendas
